Each year, all the doctors of KU Hospital have a "behind the scenes" night, where the medical staff (and their guest) gets an inside look at local venues. In the past they've had events at the Starlight Theatre and the Sprint Center. This year, the event was held at the Allen Fieldhouse, the home of the KU Jayhawk basketball team. Unlike in Canada, college basketball is really popular here, so it was a really big deal to have access to this location, whereas the average person would say, "wait, you're having a work party in a college gymnasium?"
The party started with a cocktail hour on the court. There were basketballs for anyone who wanted to play. Nathan and I grabbed a ball and played "21." It was a lot of fun. Eventually as more people arrived, they joined our game. After playing, we went to the lobby were tables were set up for a buffet dinner with three different stations. The food was delicious.
Next there were tours of the gym, the locker rooms, and the exclusive donor areas. Some people were really excited for the tours. It was definitely interesting but mostly because all this money was being spent on teenagers!
It was a beautiful building and while I'm not a KU grad (or employee) I loved having access to such a historical place. We'll have to come back for a game sometime!
The Phog was Phog Allen, a basketball player and coach at KU. This banner was made in 1988 by two student.
Lobby/entrance of the gym.
These are the shower stalls in the locker rooms. Look how high the shower heads are!
Nathan was taking too long to take a photo so I started doing snow angels (no one else was around).
These are the original rules of basketball that were bought by the University at a Sothebys auction for 3.8 million dollars.
Evolution of the KU Jayhawk mascot.
In the halls of the facility, there is a lot of James Naismith memorabilia. Naismith was the Canadian who invited basketball. However, he invented the sport while he was in the United States. So while Canadians remember him as the Canadian who invented basketball, the KU department of athletics (who love basketball, had Naismith as one of their coaches, and spent millions of dollars on his rule book) have claimed him as their own. It was strange to see a story that I remember from our 90's Heritage Minutes posted on the wall at KU.
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